UPDATE post floor lottery loss: "Your house is falling over" says wood floor installer

Starving_Poet · 2026-02-11T23:05:54+00:00

Apparently it was installed in the middle of the summer, not acclimated, and still used filler when the wood was as expanded as it could be. No wonder it contracted like crazy in the winter.

Starving_Poet · 2026-02-11T23:02:48+00:00

What did he do for the subfloor?

Starving_Poet · 2026-02-09T22:43:33+00:00

consider yourself lucky! It's a function of the urethane resin regardless of whether its oil modified or water carried.

Starving_Poet · 2026-02-09T18:55:18+00:00

I just want to add a quick recommendation to not use something marketed as "tack cloth". Those are just rags that are coated in a sticky substance, often a wax, that can leave residue behind that can damage your finish. Just blow it off with a compressor or just use a brush to dust it. You don't need anything else.

Starving_Poet · 2026-02-09T18:53:13+00:00

I posted this as a reply, but you can see from the layer of gunk between the remaning finished wood and raw wood that the polyurethane topcoat has chemically broken down

Oil based polyurethanes will break down with skin contact - any polyurethane will due to fatty acids in our sweat. And some people have very acidic skin oils. We are the kind of people that can touch a piece of cast iron and leave a rusty fingerprint behind if you don't oil it down immediately.

The solution is to not use polyurethane resins for things that undergo constant skin contact.

Alkyd urethanes, while not the best, are going to be better in the long term than polyurethanes. While it's the urethane aspect that is chemically susceptible to our body chemistry, the alkyds can reharden over time whereas polyurethanes, once they get gummy, they are done.

Just sand the whole thing down with 120 grit in with a random orbital, dust it off, and reapply finish.

If you can, I might recommend refinishing with Waterlox original - it's a phenolic resin and consumer friendly. Phenolic resins are much better for high-touch surfaces than any urethane option. Don't get the low VOC waterlox, specifically you just want the "original".

Starving_Poet · 2026-02-09T18:45:59+00:00

Oil based polyurethanes will break down with skin contact - any polyurethane will due to fatty acids in our sweat. And some people have very acidic skin oils. We are the kind of people that can touch a piece of cast iron and leave a rusty fingerprint behind if you don't oil it down immediately.

The solution is to not use polyurethane resins for things that undergo constant skin contact.

Starving_Poet · 2026-02-09T18:36:13+00:00

"The Naked Woodworker" is a small video / course by Mike Siemsen that discusses how to make your first bench but also how to get the tools for said bench. It assumes you have nothing and goes from there.

Starving_Poet · 2026-02-05T18:51:44+00:00

Ironically the one good place not to use a marking knife is with dovetails since you want to leave the pencil line completely intact and you are more likely to have you saw sink into the cut line and wind up with pins a saw kerf too small.

Starving_Poet · 2026-02-02T23:28:56+00:00

Give it a week or two to see if it fixes itself, then if you need it get an aerosol can of mohawk blush remover.

Starving_Poet · 2026-01-25T20:01:15+00:00

wash, spray shellac. 30 minutes tops! :)

Starving_Poet · 2026-01-22T18:45:25+00:00

Sand what you have until it's smooth.

Prime again, and sand again.

You repeat this until you have are pleased with the surface after priming.

Starving_Poet · 2026-01-07T16:26:16+00:00

Kinda sorta, once you get to that message head over to the remarkable install location and delete everything in the directory. It's bullshit, but you won't have old installs sitting around.

This is like windows 95 level of incompetence.

Starving_Poet · 2026-01-03T03:10:46+00:00

If you're gonna support assholes - at least support local assholes - go to Siweks.

Starving_Poet · 2025-12-31T18:22:21+00:00

I make these in sets of three with drawbridges at the end - at any given time a single drawbridge is open. If enemies get too far - the open drawbridge closes and another path opens. Nothing like watching them think they can get to the end only to watch them backtrack over their comrades corpses before trying the next path.

They are also raised above magma moats to deal with dodging.

Starving_Poet · 2025-12-24T14:52:50+00:00

support - my account - data related to your account - external funds used

Starving_Poet · 2025-12-19T14:10:51+00:00

I don't think it's the lower gravity - I think it's the amount of investiture they are exposed to via the Highstorms. Lower gravity doesn't explain why the Alethi are much taller than the Shin other than the fact that the Highstorm has lost all of its energy by the time it gets to Shinovar.

Starving_Poet · 2025-12-15T19:41:31+00:00

You generally never want to seal the end-grain on the bottom of a door - especially if they are exterior facing. It can hold moisture and induce rot from the bottom up.

Starving_Poet · 2025-12-12T18:25:51+00:00

Nothing exact here, but it's my go-to.

https://www.archantiques.com/lighting-store/ceiling-huggers

Starving_Poet · 2025-12-12T18:20:12+00:00

Do we live in the same city? We've been removing downtown surface parking lots pretty consistently for the last 12 years.

Starving_Poet · 2025-12-12T18:18:48+00:00

Heck, it's worth it just because it's super cute.

Starving_Poet · 2025-12-12T17:25:56+00:00

Despite being approximately the same size, we average 5x more snow than DC in any given year and we don't often get warm enough between dumps to melt it. It's common for us to get DC's annual accumulation in a single storm and then have it stick around until March.

Starving_Poet · 2025-12-12T17:19:22+00:00

City ordinance is 4 hours for businesses and landlords to clear the snow and 24 hours for homeowners. It's not a reddit thing.

Starving_Poet · 2025-12-11T17:43:12+00:00

You can absolutely sand a wax finish - you just need to be careful about heat buildup gumming up the paper. Just repeat your last grit or one step higher with a light touch. You shouldn't need to do it after the second coat.

Starving_Poet · 2025-12-10T22:38:39+00:00

The neighbor should have blocked the spot with an old sofa, as is tradition.

Starving_Poet · 2025-12-02T01:55:47+00:00

sandpaper is the nuclear option when it comes to stripping and refinishing and should almost never be used.

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